Related Research: Deeper Learning

College, Career, & Civic Participation​

Kristina Zeiser, James Taylor, Jordan Rickles, Michael S. Garet, and Michael Segeritz
2014 | In this, the third of three reports on deeper learning from the American Institutes for Research, authors focus specifically on key questions about student outcomes in the areas of cognitive competency, interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies, graduation rates, and college enrollment. They found that students in participating network high schools that explicitly focused on deeper learning experienced better outcomes compared tothan students who attended non-network comparison high schools.

Kyra Caspary, Regie Stites, Christine Padilla, Nicole Arshan, C.J. Park, Victoria Tse, Samantha Astudillo, and Nancy Adelman
2014 | This SRI International report on the Linked Learning District Initiative shows that, compared with similar peers in traditional high school programs, students in certified Linked Learning pathways earn more credits in the first three years of high school, are more likely to be on track at the end of 10th grade to complete the courses required for four-year public colleges in California, and are less likely to drop out.

Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment​

Pedro Noguera, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Diane Friedlaender
2015 | This report focuses on equity in teaching and learning. Authors Pedro Noguera, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Diane Friedlaender describe the obstacles that prevent schools from delivering high-quality instruction; examine educational models, structures, and practices that facilitate deeper learning; and take a systemic perspective to consider how policy, practice, and research can be aligned to support the development of pedagogy for deeper learning in schools serving students who have been placed at risk of failure.

Catherine Bitter, James Taylor, Kristina Zeiser, and Jordan Rickles
2014 | In this report, the second in a series of three from the American Institutes for Research, authors Catherine Bitter, James Taylor, Kristina Zeiser, and Jordan Rickles focus on the opportunities that students had to engage in deeper learning in their classrooms, asking the question, "Did students who attended the selected network schools experience more opportunities to engage in deeper learning than would likely have been the case had they not attended the network schools?”

Mette Huberman, Catherine Bitter, Jennifer Anthony, and Jennifer O'Day
2014 | This is the first in a series from the American Institutes for Research on the strategies, opportunities, and outcomes of a set of high schools organized to promote deeper learning. Authors Mette Huberman, Catherine Bitter, Jennifer Anthony, and Jennifer O’Day focus on the assumption that educators can design schools’ instructional strategies, structures, and cultures to explicitly focus on deeper learning and provide a picture of the strategies and structures used in the sampled network.

Linda Darling-Hammond, Molly B. Zielezinski, and Shelley Goldman
2014 | Based on a review of more than 70 recent studies, this brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education and Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education describes approaches to technology use, particularly as they apply to high school students at risk of failing courses and exit examinations or dropping out because of personal and academic factors. The brief then outlines policy strategies that could expand the uses of technology for at-risk high school youth.

School Organization & Design​

Reuben Jacobson and Martin J. Blank
2015 | This paper from the Coalition for Community Schools provides a learning framework on how community schools systemically promote better learning through results-focused community partnerships. Authors Reuben Jacobson and Martin J. Blank argue that quality learning happens more frequently and effectively if barriers to learning are addressed, when families and communities are engaged in ways that support learning, and when partners work with educators to expand and enhance learning opportunities.

Rebecca Unterman
2014 | Beginning in 2010, MDRC released three research reports on the New York City Department of Education’s multiyear initiative to create small public high schools that are open to all students. This brief adds evidence from a fourth cohort on high school graduation and presents MDRC’s first results with respect to these schools’ effect on their students’ postsecondary enrollment. Students randomly selected to attend small schools performed better than peers who applied and were not selected.

Diane Friedlaender, Dion Burns, Heather Lewis-Charp, Channa Mae Cook-Harvey, Xinhua Zheng, and Linda Darling-Hammond
2014 | This report from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education documents the practices and outcomes of four urban high schools that are using student-centered approaches to prepare students for college, career, and life success. The study focuses on schools using student-centered practices through the Linked Learning initiative or Envision Education model. The study also addresses the policy changes that are essential to student-centered schools, including funding, human capital policies, and implementation.

Seema Shaw, Kavitha Mediratta, and Sara McAlister
2009 | This report, based on a six-year study by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, analyzes the impact of community organizing by the Oakland Community Organization (OCO) on a small- school reform effort in Oakland, California. This study utilized extensive document analysis, student outcome data, and interviews and surveys from parents, teachers, district administrators, and organizers to answer key questions about school reform efforts and about the importance of community engagement in sustaining reform over time.

Ash Vasudeva, Linda Darling-Hammond, Stephen Newton, and Kenneth Montgomery
2009 | This report by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University (SRN) provides a brief history of Oakland’s small-schools initiative; analyzes the value-added productivity of these and other Oakland Unified School District schools, as well as other factors influencing schools’ ability to add value to student learning; and examines cases of high-performing schools that offer insights about policies and practices that can support continued progress for schools and students.

Diane Friedlaender and Linda Darling-Hammond
2007 | This report by Diane Friedlaender and Linda Darling-Hammond documents the practices and outcomes of five urban high schools in California that do an extraordinary job of preparing students for success in higher education, productive careers, and a fulfilling life. The schools, which have nonselective admissions requirements and serve primarily students of color and low-income students, graduate students at higher rates than the state average and send more than 80 percent of them to college.

Linda Darling-Hammond, Peter Ross and Michael Milliken
2006 | This Brookings paper examines findings across a wide range of studies on school size over the last 30 years. Based on their analysis, authors Linda Darling-Hammond, Peter Ross, and Michael Milliken find that influences of size appear to be mediated by other features of school organizations that are sometimes, but not always, associated with size. They conclude that the relationship between school size and many desired outcomes is an indirect one.

Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Friedlaender
2006 | Windows on Conversions, published by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University, provides an up-close examination of successful school redesign. Video documentaries and written case studies capture the voices of teachers, administrators, parents, and students who are successfully transforming four high schools: Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California; the School of the Arts at South Shore Multiplex in Chicago; Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine; and Clover Park High School in Lakewood, Washington.

Linda Darling-Hammond
2002 | This report by Linda Darling-Hammond provides an overview of design features of effective small schools. These key elements include: school structures that promote meaningful, sustained relationships among teachers and students; curriculum and instructional practices that help all students achieve at high levels; approaches that ensure teachers are experts at their craft; and strategies for involving families in schools and making decisions democratically. Each section includes examples of schools putting these strategies into practice.

Featured Resources

Often forgotten in the policy debates on school choice are fundamental questions of whether and how choice influences access to high-quality schools, and whether, in our diverse democracy that requires common ground, choices promote or undermine integration. This report reviews research on a variety of school choice strategies and examines how public school choices can be managed to ensure all students have excellent schools to choose from and are chosen by excellent schools.

Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity—experiences that can affect attention, learning, and behavior. This report looks at neuroscience, science of learning, and child development research on whole child approaches to education that improve learning for all students, especially those living with trauma.

Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), in addition to the required indicators of schools performance, states can select indicators to measure schools’ efforts to support students and provide equitable opportunities or to identify places where additional investments need to be made to improve education and support underserved students. This report documents how states are taking advantage of this opportunity to address disparities, make schools more inclusive, and help all students succeed.

Sign up for our mailing list to stay up to date with the Learning Policy Institute.